Chapter 3: The Opening part 2
Marvin walked deeper into the library with a tea tray. The cups jingled on their saucers as he walked.
"Now I have to do this. The Librarian always gives me the dirty jobs. I hate it"
Marvin smiled for a moment and his cheeks turned a rosy color, "At least I get to see Sergeant Angua. All in all today will not end badly"
"Excuse me mister. Where is the children's section?" a tiny voice piped up from behind him.
Marvin's happy face turned ashen as he heard this. He turned around slowly to see a little girl wearing some sort of uniform. He guessed she was about ten years old. The girl stood there with big, innocent eyes staring at him.
"I want to find books on ponies and princesses, because we are doing a school project on them. Why are you dressed so funny?"
This happened from time to time. A library that stretched from the corner of one universe to the furthest reaches of several dimensions will sometime suck somebody into it. Marvin only ever saw this happen once, but the Librarian told him that it has happened on many previous occasions. The problem is that you don't always know about them until you accidentally stumble across their skeleton lying against a bookcase.
"Here now, where do you come from?" he asked.
"I live in New York. My daddy brought me today and he is waiting for in the Starbucks across the street" the little girl said.
Marvin looked at her strangely for a while. "Listen, go up this aisle, and go to the front desk. The Librarian is there and he will help you, okay? Just tell him everything you told me, and you will be alright", Marvin spoke to the books, "Help her find her way to the Librarian, and don't get her lost"
"Who are you talking to mister?"
"No one. Now, if you get lost, listen to the books, they will help you as well"
"You smell like glue and stale tea bags" the little girl said before she ran off.
Marvin heaved a sigh, "Little brat, not even a "thank you" for saving her life"
"Crap! I didn't tell her the Librarian was an ape! Oh well" Marvin realized a minute too late. Marvin followed the books to where Captain Carrot and Sergeant Angua were.
Sergeant Angua's eyes were glazed over. She stopped listening to Carrot over twenty minutes ago. All she was doing now was smiling, nodding her head and at appropriate times said "Fascinating". The thing was, she liked Carrot very much, but a girl can only take so much information about the dwarves before she became bored with it, especially information about dwarf bread.
Carrot was sitting amidst a pile of books, happily reciting facts from "Makors of Dwarv Bred".
"… and so King Drolgar Ironcoal forged the first Dwarven Flat Bread, and wielded it to the battle of Stony Toes where he defeated the troll hoard!"
"Fascinating"
"Oh! And listen to this…"
Sergeant Angua just smiled and nodded. She snapped out of her trance, as she smelled tea coming their way.
"Carrot, someone is coming"
Carrot looked up from his book and looked down the passage, "Probably the Librarian or Marvin. I admire them both for taking such good care of all these books"
Marvin appeared around the corner with the tea laden tray, "Good evening Captain" he said with a forced smile. His facial expression turned into that of a lovesick puppy as he greeted Angua, "H- He- Hello Sergeant, I thought you might like some tea… So I brought some"
Angua knew about poor Marvin, and humored him as much as she could.
"Thank you Marvin, you are such a sweet heart" she said while taking her cup. Marvin's legs turned to jelly.
"I- I'll just leave this here, and, um, go back. Just let me know when you are leaving"
"Good tea. Thank you Marvin. Do you have any books on the middle ages of Dwarven bread?" Carrot asked.
Marvin looked a little irked. Why couldn't it just be him and Angua? "Yes Captain, we have those. In fact, we have every book ever made"
Carrot looked puzzled, "How can you have every book ever made? The Library is too small"
"Oh Carrot" Angua said shaking her head. "Don't worry Marvin, I'll sort him out. Thank you again for the tea"
"Pl- Pleasure"
Marvin was happy again. Angua spoke to him. Nothing could go wrong now. But it did. Everything went horribly wrong. Marvin snapped his head back in the direction of the front of the Library. Something off the scales just happened up front, and the books were afraid. The rustling sounds of their chains were unnerving. Some of the younger books tried to fly away.
Angua's werewolf senses told her something was wrong, "Marvin, what is happening?"
"Oh my! Oh no! The Librarian!"
Carrot looked around him, "The Librarian? I don't see him"
"No! You don't understand. Something is in the Library, and it just attacked the Librarian. The girl! Oh no! She is going to see him! We have to save her!"
"Calm down Marvin!" Angua shouted, "What girl? What is happening?"
"No time to explain, make your way towards the front, I'll contact the Faculty as soon as possible and come back with help. Whatever it is, I ask you to stall it for as long as possible"
Angua sniffed the air. Fear was the most common among all the smells she picked up, but one smell came through clearly, very expensive deodorant. This deodorant that wasn't available in Ankh Morpork. In fact, no place on the Disk made this expensive deodorant.
Marvin ran off with great speed, holding his hat in one hand so that it couldn't fall off. He turned two corners, twisted the dimension to his will (You quickly learned the shortcuts in a magical library) and stood by the teleportation books.
The man stood inside the Library looking at the interior. "My my, as interesting as they said it would be"
"OOK OOK EEK!"
The man turned around to see an Orangutan jumping up and down on top of a large ornate desk. Its hair was standing on end, giving it the look of a large pincushion.
"OOOOOK!" it shrieked again.
The man scanned his immediate surroundings, and looked at the orangutan again, "Hmmm. They never said anything about the librarian having a pet monkey. Guess I'll just have to find the book on my own then"
The Librarian lungedwith all four arms extended. He realized soon after that it was a grave mistake.
